Method for backing up and recovering data in the hard disk of a computer

ABSTRACT

A method of backing up and recovering data in the hard disk of a computer, comprising a step of backing up data in the hard disk, including: allocating a mirror partition in a hard disk for backing up the data in a partition of the hard disk where the data need to be backed up are stored; backing up integrally the data in the backed up partition specified by the user into the allocated corresponding mirror partition; and hiding the space of the mirror partition; the method further comprising a recovery step for recovering integrally the hard disk data in the mirror partition into the corresponding backed up partition according to the instruction of the user. The present invention can back up and recovery all kinds of data in the hard disk safely and reliably.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method of backing up and recoveringdata stored in a hard disk of a computer.

BACKGROUND ART

Hard disks as the most commonly used external storage devices ofcomputers have been used for storing large amount of user data andsystem information, thus the security and reliability thereof are veryimportant. While the misoperation of the user, defects of managementsoftware of hard disk data and the attacks of the computer viruses maydestroy useful data on the hard disks. Some of the boot type viruses mayfurther destroy the parameter file on the hard disk, causing thesoftware system of computer breaking down and unable to start normally.Therefore it is necessary to make a back-up copy of the hard disk data.

A hard disk rescue card is used for backing-up the hard disk data in theprior art, which is usually mounted on an extension slot or externalextension interface of the computer, corresponding parameters shall beset and an installation program shall be run after the mounting of therescue card, thus system resources shall be occupied. If the softwaretherein is to be upgraded, then the ROM chip for storing the software inthe card and the installation program shall be upgraded as well, thuscausing inconvenience. In addition the maintenance of the hardwarebecome complicated. Since part of the program and parameters of suchrescue card are stored in the operating system of the hard disk, if thehard disk is damaged due to virus or other causes, the rescue card willloss its functions. Furthermore, an ordinary rescue card may onlyprotect one hard disk, and it is possible to be inconsistent with themother board of the computer, therefore the effect of the hard diskrescue card is limited, and the security and reliability of the harddisk data can not be protected perfectly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method ofbacking-up and recovering data in the hard disk of a computer, which canback up and recover the data on the hard disk safely and reliably, andthe damaged hard disk data due to the misoperation of the user or theaffection of various viruses and the like can be recovered rapidly,conveniently and reliably,

The technical solutions of the present invention are as follows:

A method of backing-up and recovering the data in the hard disk of acomputer according to the present invention, comprises:

-   -   (1) a back-up step for backing up the hard disk data, including:    -   (a) allocating a mirror partition in a hard disk for backing up        the data in a partition of the hard disk where the data required        to be backed up are stored; the size of the space of the mirror        partition may equal to that of the backed up partition, or no        less than the size of the backed up partition, wherein the size        of the backed up partition may be specified by the user;    -   (b) backing up integrally the data in the backed up partition        specified by the user into the allocated corresponding mirror        partition; and    -   (c) hiding the space of the mirror partition;    -   (2) a recovery step for recovering integrally the hard disk data        in the mirror partition into the corresponding backed up        partition according to the instruction of the user.

The above mentioned back-up and recovery steps may be implemented in thestart-up procedure after power-on or resetting of the computer. Thesoftware for implementing the present invention may also be run andimplemented at other times during the running of the computer, In eachstart-up procedure of the computer, the user may execute those two stepsor one of them on demand.

In the present invention, the system main bootstrap record (MBR) and thesystem bootstrap record (PBR) on the hard disk may be backed up, and amodification flag may be set in the main bootstrap record and systembootstrap record. The modification flag is used for monitoring anddetermining whether the data of the records have been modified.

In the present invention, said recovery step may further comprise:detecting the modification flag bit in the system main bootstrap record(MBR) and system bootstrap recode (PBR) on the hard disk, respectively,when it is detected and determined that the system main bootstrap (MBR)and the system bootstrap record (PBR) have been damaged, they will berecovered automatically by using the backed up system main bootstraprecord (MBR) and the system bootstrap record (PBR), and the fileallocation table FAT 1 is restored by using the file allocation tableFAT 2. The premise for the implementation of the restoration of the fileallocation table is that the table FAT 2 is integral and undamaged.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the hiding of the mirrorpartition is implemented by modifying the number of sectors of the harddisk in the hard disk parameter table FDPT. The hiding of the mirrorpartition is implemented by hiding the hard disk sectors of the mirrorpartition. Practically, the hiding of the hard disk sectors can also beimplemented by other methods, such that ordinary user operating systemapplications and computer viruses can not access the mirror partition,and thus the object of protecting the backed up data of the hard diskcan be achieves. The procedure of hiding the mirror partition is usuallyautomatically implemented by software after the creation of the mirrorpartition.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the hiding of the backed uppartition may be implemented by modifying the number of sectors of thehard disk partitions in the hard disk parameter table (FDPT). Theprotection of the hard disk data can also be implemented in this manner.For example, the sum of the numbers of sectors of all the mirrorpartitions is subtracted from the actual total number of sectors. Thusany unauthorized user is unable to access the hidden partitions.

In the present invention, the system configuration data stored in thecomputer may be backed up on the hard disk based on the specification ofthe user, for example, backing up the system configuration informationsaved in the CMOS RAM (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor memory)of the computer.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the hard disk data are backedup from the backed up partition into the mirror partition or recoveredfrom the mirror partition to the backed up partition in the data back-upor recovery, the data transmission mode thereof may employ theprogrammable input/output (PIO) access mode, or the direct memory access(DMA) mode.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the data on a number of harddisks connected to the computer may be backed up or recovered.

In the present invention, the backed up partition and its correspondingmirror partition may be allocated in the spaces of different hard disksconnected to the computer. Therefore, when the backed up partition andthe mirror partition occupy, respectively, the whole spaces ofrespective hard disks, mutual copying back-up of two hard disks can beimplemented, that is, a hard disk is used as a complete mirror backingup of another hard disk for copying all the data on whole hard disk.While the space of the mirror partition may not less than that of thebacked up partition.

In an embodiment of the present invention, said back-up step or recoverystep is initiated by pressing a preset hot key on the keyboard by theuser within a predetermined period of time in the start-up procedureafter the power-on or resetting of the computer.

In order to start the method of the present invention during thestart-up procedure of the computer, several hot keys may be set inadvance. When a user presses a different hot key, an interface ofdifferent language of the started back-up step or recovery step isdisplay on the display of the computer, for example, a Chinese interfaceor English interface may be entered by pressing different hot keys.Interfaces of other languages may be provided as well for users speakingdifferent languages.

In an embodiment of the present invention, an attribute of the partitionmay be set by the user for inhibiting or allowing rewriting the mainbootstrap record of the hard disk. The partition attribute, as a flagbit for inhibiting or allowing the rewriting of the main bootstraprecord, can be utilized for protecting the main bootstrap record frombeing unauthorizedly and maliciously modified (such as the effect ofcomputer viruses), and without any influence on the operations of theinstallation of new system by the user and the like. When this flag bitis set to “disable”, any overwriting on the main bootstrap record isinhibited, so that the main bootstrap sector has the function of writeprevention; when this flag bit is set to “enable”, the main bootstraprecord is allowed to be overwritten legally, e.g., overwriting the mainbootstrap record at the time of installation of a new operating systemby the user. If the above mentioned modification flag in the mainbootstrap record is modified, it can be determined that the modificationis malicious.

In the present invention, the backed up system main bootstrap record(MBR), system bootstrap record (PBR), system configuration data, thehard disk partition information data and mirror partition informationdata may be stored in the hard disk space external to the space managedby the hard disk partition manager, such that ordinary users andcomputer viruses are unable to read and write those data, thus thebacked up data can be protected effectively.

If it is discovered that the respective flag bits in the system mainbootstrap record (MBR), system bootstrap record (PBR), systemconfiguration data, the hard disk partition information data and mirrorpartition information data have been unauthrizedly rewritten, the backedup copy of the above mentioned data are restored automatically beforesystem bootstrap. Some of the important data (e.g., user passwords andthe like) can be backed up and their overwriting can be monitoredaccording to requirements, such that they can be recovered immediatelyand automatically once any malicious overwriting being discovered.

The method of the present invention may be implemented by the systemBIOS (basic input/output system) program stored on the ROM chip in themother board of the computer.

The method of the present invention may be implemented in the start-upprocedure after the power-on or resetting of the computer system. In thestart-up procedure, an active partition (also called an activatedpartition) may be set by the user in the partition provided withdifferent operating system on the hard disk.

The basic principle of the present invention is to partition a space ofthe same size on the same hard disk or another hard disk as the harddisk partition required to be backed up, which is called a mirrorpartition, and the data in the backed up partition are integrally copiedinto its respective mirror partition to achieve the object of safeback-up. The mirror partition as a reserved space of the hard disk hasnot been reported to operating system, and thus can not be accessed bythe operating system, therefore, the security and reliability of thebacked up data stored in the mirror partition can be enhanced. The onlydrawback of the present invention is that some of the hard disk spaceshall be occupied, however, s hard disk technology has been developingrapidly, the capacity of the hard disk becomes large and larger, and thecost is decreasing. A user may purchase large capacity hard disks,therefore, a user will not be subject to inconvenience for insufficienthard disk space due to the application of the present invention. Inaddition, it is worthwhile for data security to lose a small portion ofspaces of the hard disk capacity without increasing the cost.

The present invention provides the user with reliable hard disk databack-up and data recovery and back-up and recovery of CMOS configuredinformation, and provides multiple bootstrap function that is easy toconfigure, enabling the user to install multiple operating systems thatcan be started up by simple and fast settings; it is more precious forthe present invention to possess immunity to various viruses of thebootstrap type and CIH and the like of very strong damaging power, thebacked up data and records can be recovered rapidly, reliably andcompletely and any damage to the user data and system information by theviruses can be completely removed; it is a complete solution to protectagainst the CIH virus, in combination with the anti-virus writeprotecting function of the dual BIOS (FLASH ROM) carried by the motherboard per se. In addition, the software program for implementing thepresent invention is fully built in the BIOS chip, without occupying thehard disk, memory or any system resource; there is no influence on theperformance of the system. It is a preferred choice of the protectiontools of the business computers and personal computers, especially forthose users of relatively high requirements on the security andreliability of hard disk data.

The hard disk partition can be fully backed up and recovered in themanner of mirror image according to the present invention, even therecords hidden in a partition will not be lost. The user may evenundelete a newly deleted file before back-up; and such back-up andrecovery are not subject to limit on the operating system. The computersoftware according to the present invention is fully built in the BIOSand stored in the BIOS chip, without occupying any hard disk space; noother medium is required in the whole installation procedure, and it isvery hard to be destroyed. At the same time, the compatibility of thepresent invention with the computer can be enhanced and the upgrade ofsoftware can be implemented easily. In an embodiment, the space occupiedby the mirror partition is hidden by modifying the FDPT (Fixed DiskParameter Table), i.e., the pseudo-interrupt 41h/46h, so as to ensurethe security and reliability of the backed up data. There is notemporarily resident memory. Prior to each start-up of the computer,important data areas on the hard disk (e.g., the main bootstrappartition and the system bootstrap partition) are tested by the methodof the present invention, if those important data are damaged, they canbe recovered automatically by the backed up data previously stored inthe mirror partition of the hard disk. If the fixed disk file allocationtable FAT is damaged, it can be recovered as well. In an embodiment,further functions of the method of the present invention include thedata back-up and recovery functions of CMOS and the multi bootstrapfunction of the disk partitions. At most four operating systems can beinstalled on one hard disk and can be switched conveniently, without theneed to restart the system. The function of converting an extensionpartition into a primary partition has also been provided in order toimplement multi-bootstrap. The present invention can automaticallyrecognize and prompt for the recovery of the previous installation. Theoperations of the method of the present invention are simple andconvenient, and the speed of operating is fast, and two differentinterfaces of the Chinese and English language can be displayed bypressing different hot keys (e.g. two hot keys corresponding to theEnglish interface are set additionally). Running password can be set forthe software of the present invention to prevent the hard diskpartitions and the mirror partition from unauthorized overwriting, thepassword is stored on the hard disk, no one can remove it by removingthe CMOS, thus the security is high.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be further describedwith reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of the operation of an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic of the “partition interface” during the operationof the hard disk partition according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of “mirror interface” during the operationof data recover and back-up according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A typical embodiment of the present invention is a software system forbacking up hard disk data developed by the applicant for personalcomputers, and it is used for protecting the data or materials on thehard disk from loss or being affected by viruses. It is built in theBIOS system codes using the build-in-BIOS technology, that is all thefunctions of the present invention, including the programs forpartitioning, backing up and recovering are stored on the BIOS chip,without occupying the hard disk space, memory and system resources.Therefore, it is compatible with various computer mother boards andapplicable to various operating systems, and no additional floppy diskor plug-in card is required. The user needs not to install any software.It is also very convenient to upgrade the software, which can be done bydownloading a current version of the BIOS from the Internet. Thisembodiment supports all types of IDE hard disks. The basic flow andfunction according to the embodiment will be described with respect toFIGS. 1-3.

The BIOS (basic input/output system) is a low level software systemwhich communicates directly with the hardware of the computer, providesthe basic functions for controlling the hardware devices for theoperating system. The BIOS is stored in a read only memory chip, thecodes thereof will not vanish even if the computer is shut down orpower-off. Preferably, the BIOS is stored in a Flash memory (high speederasable and writable memory) chip.

Referring to FIG. 1, when the computer is started up or reset, thesystem BIOS performs power-on self test (POST), including testingwhether the critical devices exist and work normally, performingsecurity test on the hard disk, initializing power-on bootstrap,configuring the system according to the settings of the CMOS, reportingthe hardware system configuration table to the operating system, andgetting ready to hand over system control to the operating system. Inthis embodiment, two hot keys are set for users in the BIOS start-upprocedure, including “Ctrl+Tab” keys and “Home” key. “Ctrl+Tab” keys arepressed to enter the partition interface for implementing the “hard diskpartition” function (including creating a new partition and a mirrorpartition), as shown in FIG. 2. The “Home” key is pressed to enter themirror interface for implementing the “partition mirror” function(including data back-up and data recovery), as shown in FIG. 3. When auser has fulfilled the back-up or recovery function according to thepresent invention or exits therefrom with a user interrupt, the power-onself test procedure is continued under control of the system BIOS.

It shall be understood by those skilled in the art that the starting upof the software for implementing the functions of the present inventioncan be activated by other manners, instead of hot keys. For example, anoption can be set in the configuration interface of the CMOS and can beclicked by the user for activating the functions of the presentinvention.

The mother board of LEGEND computer can be provided with the functionalsoftware according to the embodiment of the present invention. By thesoftware, hard disk data can be backed up, protected and recoveredimmediately, so as to protect important materials from being lost. Inaddition, the CMOS data can also be protected and recovered in theembodiment of the present invention. Since the software of theembodiment of the present invention are built in the BIOS, once thecomputer enters the BIOS start-up step, it may enter the softwareinterface of the embodiment of the present invention and the user mayselect whether the system disk or data disk is to be backed up. Thesoftware selects an area on the hard disk for storing the backed upmaterial, and thereafter this area may not be accessed by other softwareor hardware, including viruses. For example, when the system disk isattacked by virus, important data have been lost, and the operatingsystem can not work at all, the backed up material can be recovered intothe system disk by the use of the software system of the presentinvention, and then the user computer can work normally again. Thesoftware according to the present invention is also of very stronganti-virus function, and can exclude any virus from the back-uppartition. If the invincible lock function (it is mainly used to protectthe physical storage media, such as the FLASH ROM, of the BIOS frombeing maliciously attacked by virus) developed by the Legend QDI isadded thereon, then the attack by viruses (such as CIH virus) can beavoided by the embodiment of the present invention. Unlike an ordinaryrescue card which can protect only one hard disk, up to four hard diskscan be protected by the embodiment of the present invention.

When the software system of the present invention runs on a usercomputer for the first time, the program analyzes the original partitionsystem on the hard disk, and displays the conditions of the first fourpartitions. If extension partitions exist on the original hard disk andthe number of those partitions is more than four, the system will promptthe user to delete the remaining partitions. The reason is that eachhard disk may support no more than four main partitions. If the numberof partitions is no more than four, the system will prompt the user todetermine whether the system is to be installed and run on the basis ofthe original partitions. This will convert the original extensionpartitions into normal partitions, and will possibly alter the order ofthe disk identifiers of the partitions, but without altering thecontents of the original partitions. The system will provide anothersolution to be selected by the user, that is, deleting all the originalpartition records and providing a fully clear hard disk space, but theuser shall note that this may cause the missing of all the originaldata.

FIG. 2 lists all the functions included in the “partition interface”,wherein the box “create a new partition” is used to create a newpartition. After selecting the function, the system will prompt the userwhether a mirror shall be set for the current partition, if so, the sizeof the partition may be input. The prompted maximum allocable space atthis time will be one half of the remaining space, because a mirrorpartition of the same size shall be partitioned on the hard disk for thenew partition. In addition, the capacity of the hard disk reported tothe operating system shall be reduced accordingly. The box “delete apartition” in FIG. 2 is used to delete the last partition and its mirrorpartition of the existing partitions. In order to ensure the continuityof the hard disk space, only the last partition is allowed to bedeleted, The box “activate a partition” in FIG. 2 is used for the userto select one partition from a plurality of installed operating systempartition according to the requirements, and to set it to an activepartition so as to implement the multiple bootstrap function. Forexample, the partitions C and D on the hard disk are installed with aChinese Windows 98 and an English Windows 95 system, respectively, and auser may select C or D as an active partition to start up acorresponding system. Referring to FIG. 2, the “A” marked on the leftside of the “partition C” indicates that partition C has been activated(set to an active partition). The box “create a mirror” is used to add amirror for one of the existing partitions that have no mirror, unlessthe available space of the hard disk is insufficient. Correspondingmirror partitions have been created for the partitions C and E in thefigure. The box “delete a mirror” is used to delete the mirror of apartition that has a mirror. In order to ensure the continuity of thehard disk space, only the mirror of the last partition which has amirror is allowed to be deleted, The box “uninstall software” is used touninstall the program of the present invention. The uninstallingprocedure can be done immediately after the confirmation of the user.

When a user has entered the partition interface shown in FIG. 2 or themirror interface shown in FIG. 3, he can switch directly between thesetwo interface by pressing the hot keys, such as “Home” key or“Ctrl+Tab”keys.

Referring to FIG. 3, the box “partition back-up” in this figure is usedfor backing up the contents of a partition designated by the user intoits mirror partition. If this partition has been backed up previously,the system will display the time of the last back-up and prompt the userto confirm, and the data will be backed up previously, the system willdisplay the time of the last back-up and prompt the user to confirm, andthe data will be backed up after confirmation. The box “partitionrecovery” is used for restoring the contents of a mirror partition intoits corresponding partition. For example, mirror partitions C′ and E′have been created for partitions C and E in the existing partitions C,D, E and F, if the partition C is to be recovered, the content of mirrorpartition C′ is restored into partition C. If there are more than twohard disks, the identifiers of the partitions are changed from C, D, E,F to 1, 2, 3, 4 for distinguishing, as shown in FIG. 3.

The execution of partition back-up or partition recovery may adopt theprogrammable input/output access (PIO) mode or the direct memory access(DMA) mode. When the PIO mode is adopted, the currently larger memoryspace can be sufficiently used as a buffer (the operating system has notbeen loaded into the memory yet at that time), since the running of theBIOS is in the power on self test (POST) stage at that time. A block ofdata of determined amount is read from the hard disk each time, withoutthe need to find the tracks, and then it is placed in the memory. Whenthe available memory space is fully occupied by data, the data in thememory are written into the mirror partition or back-up partition inblocks, thus the speed of data back-up or recovery can be increased. Thecopy speed in the present embodiment can be as high as 5M per second.The copy speed of data can be up to 100M per second theoretically if,for example, the ultra DMA mode is employed.

The setting of the “partition attribute” in FIG. 3 allows the partitionattribute to be reset after the computer having entered the operatingsystem. For example, this option can be set to “on” during theinstallation of the operating system or when the partition attributesare needed to modify (e.g., changing FAT 16 to FAT 32), this partitionbecomes a general purpose IDE device at that time, allowing unmaliciousmodification of the system attribute, for example, during theinstallation of the operating system, and the monitoring on the MBR iscancelled; and the MBR and PBR are automatically backed up after theinstallation of the system. When the partition attribute is set to“off”, any overwriting operation on the partition attribute isinhibited. The box “CMOS back-up” shown in FIG. 3 is used for backing upthe contents of CMOS into the hard disk. The configuration parameters ofthe memory, display card, hard disk, floppy disk drive, optical diskdrive, serial communication port, parallel communication port, and othercomponents in the computer system, and the setting information of thetime, password, and etc are usually stored in the CMOS. The system willbe unable to be started up once they are damaged. If the contents ofCMOS are backed up according to the present invention, the system willbe safe and reliable, and easy to be restored. The box “CMOS recovery”in FIG. 3 is used for restoring the backed up settings in the CMOS. Thebox “password setting” is used for setting the passwords for the user toenter the “partition interface” in FIG. 2 and the “mirror interface”0 inFIG. 3.

The first sector of track 0 on a hard disk is called MBR, and its sizeis 512 bytes. This area is divided into two portions. The first portionis the pre-boot area including 446 bytes; and the second portion is thepartition table including 66 bytes. This area corresponds to a smallprogram whose function is to determine which partition is marked as anactive partition, then the boot area of that partition is read out andthe codes in the area are executed. Once the data in that sector aredamaged, the hard disk may be unable to start up.

According to the present invention, the files affected by viruses can berestored by the recovery of the mirror partition. On the other hand, thepresent invention has very strong defense ability against the bootstraparea viruses, and can also protect against the attacks of the CIH virusof very strong destructiveness. If a user computer is destroyed by theCIH virus, the method of the present invention can restore the mainbootstrap record (MBR) of the main bootstrap sector and the bootstrapsector PBR of each of the partitions automatically and attempts torestore the file allocation table FAT before the bootstrap system isstarted up by the computer (according to the condition of destruction bythe CIH virus, the CIH virus is activated usually on 26^(th) of everymonth, if the system can not be started up normally on that day, itshall be powered off immediately to reduce the destructiveness of thesystem), such that the system can be bootstrapped basically, thisfunction is not possessed by the existing anti-virus software; thenremoving the virus by the use of the virus killing software. It is morereliable to use the partition recovery function of the present inventionto restore the contents of the mirror partition into the backed uppartition, but the premise is that the contents of the backed uppartition has already been backed up into the mirror partition prior toaffection by viruses.

1. A method of backing up and recovering data on hard disk of computer,comprising the following steps: (1) a back-up step for backing up thehard disk data, including: (a) allocating a mirror partition in a harddisk for backing up the data in a partition of the hard disk where thedata needed to be backed up are stored; (b) backing up integrally thedata from the backed up partition specified by the user into theallocated corresponding mirror partition; and (c) hiding the space ofthe mirror partition; (2) a recovery step for recovering integrally thehard disk data in the mirror partition into the corresponding backed uppartition according to the instruction of the user.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said back-up step further includes backingup the system main bootstrap record (MBR) and the system bootstraprecord (PBR) on the hard disk, and setting modification flags in themain bootstrap record and the system bootstrap record, respectively. 3.The method according to claim 2, wherein said recovery step furtherincludes detecting the modification flag bits in the system mainbootstrap record MBR wherein, when the system bootstrap record PBR onthe hard disk, respectively, when the system main bootstrap record (MBR)and the system bootstrap record (PBR) are determined to have beendamaged, respectively, they are recovered automatically by the use ofthe backed up system main bootstrap record (MBR) and system bootstraprecord (PBR), and the file allocation table FAT 1 is restored by the useof a valid file allocation table FAT
 2. 4. The method according to claim1, wherein, in said back-up step, the hiding of the mirror partition isimplemented by modifying the number of sectors in the partitions of thehard disk in the hard disk parameter table (FDPT).
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising hiding the hacked up partitionby modifying the number of sectors of the hard disk partitions in thehard disk parameter table (FDPT).
 6. The method according to claim 1,wherein said back-up step further includes the step of: backing up thesystem configuration data stored in the computer on the hard diskaccording to the instruction of the user.
 7. The method according toclaim 1, wherein, in said back-up step and said recovery step, thetransmission mode of the back-up data and recovery data is aprogrammable input/output access (PIO) mode or a direct memory access(DMA) mode.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein, data back-up ordata recovery is performed for multiple hard disks connected to thecomputer.
 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the backed uppartition and the corresponding mirror partition thereof are located inspaces of different hard disks of the computer.
 10. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein said back-up step or recovery step is initiated bythe user by pressing a preset hot key on the keyboard during apredetermined time interval in the start-up procedure after the power-onor resetting of the computer.
 11. The method according to claim 10,wherein, multiple hot keys are preset, and, when different hot keys arepressed by the user, an interface of the initiated back-up step orrecovery step is displayed on the display of the computer, and theinterface is displayed in different languages.
 12. The method accordingto claim 1, further comprising setting a partition attribute by the userto inhibit or allow the main bootstrap record of the hard disk to beoverwritten.
 13. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the backed updata are stored in hard disk spaces beyond the space manageable by thehard disk manager of the operating system.
 14. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising setting modification flag bits in the backedup data, wherein when it is discovered that the respective modificationflag bits of the backed up data have been modified without permission,the backed up data of the respective data are restored automaticallybefore system bootstrap.
 15. The method according to claim 1, whereineach of the steps of the method is implemented by the system BIOSprogram stored in the ROM chip on the mother board of the computer. 16.The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is implemented inthe procedure of start-up bootstrap after the power-on or resetting ofthe computer system.
 17. The method according to claim 16, furthercomprising setting an active partition in the partitions on the harddisk provided with different operating systems.